The distribution and postulated phylogeny of the dipteran family Chironomidae - the non-biting midges - provided a model for southern hemisphere biogeographic reconstruction under a Hennigian paradigm (Brundin 1966). In the ensuing period, this seminal study has been cited in many text books, revisited frequently for reanalysis, and modifed and elaborated with new data and methods of analysis. Supplementary taxa, including fossils, and novel distributions from Australia and South Africa have reinforced and extended the vicariance-based dating for the 3 subfamilies that Brundin considered - the Aphroteniinae, the Podonominae and austral Diamesinae. However ongoing molecular results in collaboration with Lyn Cook, Australian National University, threaten the monophyly of some core entities - notably the subfamily Podonominae and the included genus Archaeochlus. The latter can be reconciled after re-examination of genitalic morphology into an Australian clade and an expanded Southern African sister taxon, positioned successively at the base of the cladogram following the marine subfamily Telmatogetoninae. The concept of Brundin's Podonominae is less easily rescued, and further sampling of the many gondwanan and few Holarctic taxa is required to understand the significance for biogeography of the apparent polyphyly appearing from the molecular data. Clades estimated by austral vicariance to be at least of Cretaceous origin appear remarkably consistent in modern day ecology, occuring in identical microhabitas across all continents and inferring very long term stasis.
Species 1: Diptera Chironomidae Archaeochlus
Keywords: Gondwanan midges
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA